With the arrival in Europe of over a million refugees and asylum seekers in 2015, a sense of panic began to spread within the continent and beyond. What is a Refugee? puts these developments into historical context, injecting much-needed objectivity and nuance into contemporary debates over what is to be done. Refugees have been with us for a long time -- although only after the Great War did refugee movements commence on a large scale -- and are ultimately symptoms of the failure of the system of states to protect all who live within it. Providing a terse user's guide to the complex legal status of refugees, Maley argues that states are now reaping the consequences of years of attempts to block access to asylum through safe and 'legal' means. He shows why many mooted 'solutions' to the 'problem' of refugees -- from military intervention to the warehousing of refugees in camps -- are counterproductive, creating environments ripe for the growth of extremism among people who have been denied all hope. In a globalised world, he concludes, wealthy states have the resources to protect refugees. And, as his historical account shows, courageous individuals have treated refugees in the past with striking humanity. States today could do worse than emulate them.

1. IntroductionSome categories and distinctions
Some recurring themes
The objectives and structure of this book
2. Defining 'refugees'
International refugee law: origins
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees
Broader legal definitions
Refugee protection under other branches of law
Status determination by states
Ordinary language understandings of 'refugee'
Philosophical definitions of 'refugee'
3. Exile and Refuge: A Brief Overview
Political violence, marginalization and the human experience
Exile and ideology from the 17th to the early 20th century
Russian and German refugees between the World Wars
Postwar refugee resettlement
Internal conflict and refugee movements in the late 20th and early 21st centuries
4. States and Refugees
The Westphalian system
Bureaucracy and its failings
Individual initiatives
People smuggling: a product of state inaction
5. Roots of Refugee 'Crises' in a Globalized World
State disruption and violent conflict
The fear of 'terrorism'
Transport, the wherewithal to travel, and human mobility
Globalization and its impacts
6. Diplomacy and Refugees
Frameworks for negotiation over refugees
'Burden sharing' and its dilemmas
The temptation of 'easy options'
Refugees as agents
7. Refugees, Intervention and the 'Responsibility to Protect'
The use of force
The idea of humanitarian intervention
'Intervention' as a solution
The Responsibility to Protect
8. 'When Adam delved and Eve span EL': Some Reflections on Closing and Opening Borders
The costs of controlled borders
The moral costs of refugee exclusion
Confronting the 'Birthright Lottery'
Endnotes and Index